Hong Kong reform to feature in high-level US talks with Chinese officials
Washington to press officials on reform in city as well as tensions in South China Sea
Washington will not "paper over" differences between the United States and China when top officials of the world's two largest economies meet next week, with tensions in the South China Sea, cybersecurity and electoral reform in Hong Kong among the issues to be highlighted.
Daniel Russel, the United States' assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said on Thursday that US officials would also stress human rights, including China's "very problematic" law on NGOs, and its restrictions on media and civil society at the annual US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue from Monday to Wednesday in Washington.
The bilateral meeting - the seventh since 2009 - will be attended by US Secretary of State John Kerry and US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew as well as Yang Jiechi , state councillor and China's top diplomat, and Vice-Premier Wang Yang , according to the State Department.
Russel called this week's announcement by China that it planned to continue and expand the construction of facilities on reclaimed outposts in disputed waters "troubling."
US officials would also press China on currency policy, said a senior US Treasury official, who in briefing reporters did not rule out the possibility Washington might one day join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, seen as a rival to the US-dominated World Bank and Japan-led Asian Development Bank, although any such a move was "well down the road".
Professor Jin Canrong of Renmin University in Beijing, said Russel's comments showed the two countries' relations had matured to the point both sides can voice their views clearly, even when their core interests conflict.